So, the kid climbs into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnatti Zoo, gets dragged around by one of the gorillas, who gets whacked by the zoo personnel in order to save the kid. There is a whole lot of stupid to go around here… the zoo that made an enclosure easily breached, the parents who couldn’t or wouldn’t keep track of their kids. Lots of stupid, but little actual humor. In the end, the basic story is jsut sad… the gorilla pretty much *had* to die once it started dragging the kid around, but the kid didn’t *have* to be in the position to be dragged around. Stupid. Not funny.

But right on schedule, leave it to politically minded idiots to inject humor into the situation. Gentlemen, behold:

And there are a great many more in this vein. That in and of itself is funny, in a kind of predictably sad, pathetic way. But you know what brings the story to the point of high comedy? Here’s the kid and his parents:

Now, I admit that I’m not as “awakened” or “enlightened” to racial issues as many people, but there seems to be something here that makes me scratch my head in confusion about this white kid.

Leave it to someone other than the major US media outlets to ask about the relevant policy issues:

LEÓN KRAUZE, UNIVISION: I am sure that you know about this topic: various leftist governments, especially the populists, are in serious trouble in Latin America. The socialist model in Venezuela has the country near collapse. Argentina, also Brazil, how do you explain that failure?

BERNIE SANDERS: You are asking me questions…

LEÓN KRAUZE, UNIVISION: I am sure you’re interested in that.

BERNIE SANDERS: I am very interested, but right now I’m running for President of the United States.

LEÓN KRAUZE, UNIVISION: So you don’t have an opinion about the crisis in Venezuela?

BERNIE SANDERS: Of course I have an opinion, but as I said, I’m focused on my campaign.

Here’s an odd thing. If you listen to popular music for songs about space, you’ll hear very few. If you do hear one, it’ll almost certainly have lyrics describing space and space travel in unfortunate terms. If you see spaceflight in the movies, it’s almost always showing terrible things happening… war, aliens invaders, “space madness,” ships and stations falling apart, space diseases, so on. It seems that popular culture would have you believe that space is just… bad.

And yet: if someone needs to reference uplifting ideas, to show in graphic terms childlike wonder… one sure-fire way to succeed is to reference spaceflight. Gentlemen, behold: an American Family Insurance commercial that jumps straight into “the dream of space is awesome” pool.

I’ve recently figured out how to get reliably good-quality vector graphic PDF files from my AutoCAD diagrams.These differ from standard “raster” graphics like GIFs and JPGs in that they are composed of scalable lines rather than pixels; this means that they can be printed off at many scales and they’ll retain clarity.

I think a lot of the diagrams would look quite good printed in large format; I’ve previously mentioned that I’m working on a few diagrams specifically for printing off on large format (24X36) mylar, but I’ve others that I think would also look good scaled for 18X24. I’m making these first seven diagrams available, formatted and scaled for 18X24. They can be viewed on screen, printed on a standard printer or printed by a large format printer all with equal clarity.

If this idea appeals, be sure to tell your friends, family, foes, anyone you think might be interested. Also be sure to comment if there are any diagrams I’ve previously created for APR, USXP or elsewhere that you’d like to see in this format. Some of them would be best as multi-sheet diagrams. Suggestions on how to improve also appreciated.

So. You have yourself a mirror, and you have yourself a ridiculous bright source of light. Maybe it’s a laser and an aiming mirror, maybe it’s the sun and a solar sail deployed at a dangerously close perihelion. Since no mirror is 100% reflective, some of the light is absorbed and the mirror temperature climbs. Assume the mirror is made out of something that can take very high temperatures (say, iridium)… so high that the mirror becomes incandescently hot without melting. So, the question is… if your shiny iridium mirror is glowing white hot… is it still a reflector? I know that with gases, the most transparent vapor become a near-perfect absorber of incoming radiation if it’s incandescent. But how about a solid reflector?

Happened in Berlin. Two of the attackers were caught… a Syrian and a Lebanese. Make of it what you will. I’m sure some will read this news item and conclude that the message is “Hmm. Trump sucks.” Which is true, but irrelevant.

After a false start, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) has been inflated. Hopefully the start of new constructions in orbit… space stations as big or bigger than ISS (in terms of available volume) in just a few Falcon 9 launches.

I’m hurrying to get together the CAD diagram for the May APR Patreon Rewards package. The rest of the reward items are ready to go, but there’s still a little work to accomplish on the diagram. But rest assured it’ll be ready before the end of the month and will be sent out to current APR Patreon patrons. So if you’d be interested in the Lockheed A-1 diagram – which in the largest form is formatted for 18X24 – signed up soon! It’s only a few dollars…

Another rare piece of early Dyna Soar color art. This one shows the Dyna Soar heading to space atop the centaur upper stage of an Atlas booster. And if you think you are seeing corrugations on the back of the spaceplane, you are correct. At this stage in the design process the Dyna Soar *did* […]

So the media is currently ulcerating over Trump suggesting that he’d like to see NFL owners fire players who decide to disrespect the US flag & anthem before games. Here’s the thing: 1: It’s the players right to disrespect the flag, the anthem, the US. 2: It’s any citizens right to say that he’d like […]

Yes, I’ve posted these before. But I feel it’s important for everyone to maintain a proper level of understanding of the encabulator, the turbo-encabulator and the retro-encabulator. And of course once you have an encabulator, you’ll need to diagnose it from time to time: There have of course been advances in the field […]

Argh. Facebook is not my favorite thing. But, apparently, it’s where all the cool kids hang out, so the Aerospace Projects Review Facebook page that I cobbled together years ago, I’ve started posting things in again. One of the weird things about Facebook is that you (apparently) can’t see a page unless you are signed […]

Oh, boy! Mayhem! A Group Of 62 Catholics Has Accused The Pope Of Spreading Heresy Not being Catholic, I have no dog in this fight. Still, it’s always entertaining when religious leaders tell other religious leaders they’re wrong. Wacky hijinks often ensue.

So, Star Trek Discovery plopped onto the airwaves tonight. My review: It was certainly pretty, but all those visuals were spoiled by a whole lot of “WTF am I looking at?” Especially with the “Klingons” who bore almost no relationship to any prior iteration of the Klingons, in biology, aesthetics or culture. Heck, they even […]

… in a drone: This is pretty much exactly the sort of footage that would have been impossible to get prior to the current generation of drones. So just imagine what people will be able to film once the batteries for drones are actually *good,* with the power and energy density of chemical fuels like […]

OK, let’s say your town is plagued by a transdimensional monster that takes the form of a killer psychotic clown. Who would be the best person to try to destroy this menace? That’s right, the goddamn Batman: And because why not: Bill Nye just walked into our elevator while I was snap chatting.. pic.twitter.com/LwCOITAEft […]

A deli worker was attacked, someone came across the counter and slashed at him with a knife. He fought back with a knife of his own, and the other guy got the worse of it. So, what happened? Did the city of New York throw the deli worker a ticker tape parade? Give him the […]